The Guest House (by Rumi)
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Strong emotions came flooding into me today. I was a little bit surprised. Perhaps, as Rumi says, they are “cleaning me out for some new delight.” And maybe even in some way they are my teachers. But this human experience is to feel them all, whatever comes. And to know that they are only guests. They come and go. Perhaps the secret is to just let them move on through and have the perspective, the awareness to meet them all at the door laughing. To remember that even Jesus felt all the human emotions – not just love and joy but also sadness and anger. So it must be OK for me to feel them too?! To feel them all means I’m alive and coming alive. And perhaps there’s even some “glory” in it as the early Church Father Irenaeus said:
“The glory of God is human being fully alive”
IRENAEUS
And these quotes also for further consideration about letting feelings be
“Hoping a situation will change keeps you at a distance from your true feelings–sadness, anger, fear. Each of these feelings is best appreciated up close. Feel them deeply, and they will cease to bother you. Hope they’ll go away, and they’ll bother you all day.”
GAY HENDRICKS“It’s like a mother, when the baby is crying, she picks up the baby and she holds the baby tenderly in her arms. Your pain, your anxiety is your baby. You have to take care of it. You have to go back to yourself, to recognize the suffering in you, embrace the suffering, and you get a relief.”
THICH NHAT HANH“All any feeling wants is to be welcomed with tenderness. It wants room to unfold. It wants to relax and tell its story. It wants to dissolve like a thousand writhing snakes that with a flick of kindness become harmless strands of rope.”
GENEEN ROTH
10/11/2016 at 8:15 am
Yes, Sheila. I remember that illustration about the train – faith, fact and feelings. It’s just different for me now as you have also shared. Maybe when we get a little older we get a little wiser!? Feelings – and allowing them and being aware of them and learning from them actually can increase my faith in God’s loving presence and even be “teachers” that help me to hear God’s voice and longings for me, and my own as well.
10/11/2016 at 4:07 am
I was taught the train…to put faith in the Word (engine) and feelings were the caboose. Joy is the only feeling Christians are supposed to have. So shame and guilt come when we admit we are sad, depressed, or frustrated.
Life has taught me different and I appreciate that God knows, understands, and can handle me being real with Him. And in the middle of feeling lousy, there is that joy, joy, joy down in my heart as the song goes…